Read Online Spring's Gentle Promise by Janette Oke - Free Book Online Page B

my bed, but Uncle Charlie—or was it Grandpa? no, it was Uncle Charlie, I could tell by the shuffling steps—just moved to the stove for the coffeepot.
    I heard the coffee poured and Uncle Charlie sit back down. They sipped in silence for a few minutes, each busy with his own thoughts.
    “Maybe Josh really doesn’t care,” said Grandpa.
    “He cares,” Uncle Charlie affirmed flatly.
    “Yeah—‘bout which one?”
    “Can’t answer thet. But he cares. It’s nigh been eatin’ his insides.”
    He sure seemed to know a lot—maybe more than I did.
    “Hadn’t noticed,” admitted Grandpa. “How’s thet?”
    “Little things. He can spend the whole night tossin’ on his bed. I can hear ’im. Then he gets up as touchy as a bear with cubs. I see ’im lookin’ from one girl to the next—an’ when thet there fella showed up tonight, Josh fairly bristled.”
    “Thet right? Thet right?” said Grandpa, and for some strange reason there was a bit of excitement in his voice.
    I’d heard about enough. The whole thing was leaving me with a sick feeling. I moved back a step, intending to return quietly to my bed. Then a word from Grandpa caught me a blow right in the middle of my stomach.
    “Jealous, huh?”
    Jealous? Me? Of course I’m not jealous , I fumed. Jealousy was an evil emotion. It went right along with covetousness. My whole being rebelled against the thought.
    “Iffen he’s jealous—then maybe he does care. Or maybe he’s jest plain-out possessive of ’em both,” went on Grandpa.
    “I think he cares.”
    “ ’Bout who?”
    Uncle Charlie thought for a minute. Then answered slowly, “I’m not sure thet even Josh has got thet sorted out yet.”
    “Well, he’d better start ’em a sortin’,” Grandpa replied very seriously, “ ’cause thet there young Will ain’t gonna waste ’im no time.”
    “Yeah, he’s courtin’. Fer sure he’s a courtin’.”
    “He’s a courtin’ all right,” agreed Grandpa again, then repeated on a still-puzzled note, “but I’ll be hanged iffen I can figure out which one.”
    I crept back to my room, my stomach still churning and my body tight with tension. Pixie didn’t even move as I eased myself back into my bed. I had been repelled by every word I’d heard. I guess that was what an eavesdropper could expect. Still, I hadn’t planned to eavesdrop—it had just happened, and after the first few words I had overheard, I sure wasn’t going to give myself away.
    So Will is courtin’? Matilda? Or Mary? I sure hadn’t been able to discern which one. And if he’s courtin’, then we might lose one of the girls. The thought was not a comforting one. Matilda and Mary seemed to sort of come as a set. And furthermore, they both belonged to us somehow.
    But no. That was ridiculous. Even I knew that. The day would come—maybe much sooner than I liked to think—that we would lose one of the girls, or maybe both of them. We couldn’t possibly keep the two of them forever. Maybe we couldn’t keep either one of them , was a startling thought. Will would cart one of them off and then some other young buck would come along and take the other.
    The very thought made my blood boil.
    But jealous ? Why would I be jealous? I mean, I had no claim to the girls—no personal claim. I’d never courted either one of them. And they certainly had not flirted with me. Well, not really. Only in a teasing sort of way.
    I thought of Matilda’s impulsive little embraces and my face flushed in the darkness. Then I remembered Mary reaching out to gently touch my hand, and the deep look of concern and understanding in her eyes as she did so, and I colored even deeper. Maybe they do like me—sort of. Not just as family . The thought was a new one and one that I had not consciously entertained before. But if—if they did—if there was any chance that they did—then I should do something about it. I mean, I didn’t particularly enjoy the thought of spending my whole life as a